at least three people are confirmed killed and several others reported injured in a suicide bomb attack on the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital ankara. you know other news as france declares victory in its three week long campaign against islamist in mali chilling accounts on mars of the human cost of the intervention also. we don't even

realize how much of a police state the united states has become torture executive executions and a taste for covering it all up cia whistleblower john kiriakou tells r.t. why he turned against the agency. in a rocket carrying communications equipment ditches minutes after takeoff in a rail failure for russian u.s. satellite called operation. it's five pm in moscow three pm in ankara where we begin with breaking news this hour at least three people have been killed in an explosion outside the u.s. embassy in the turkish capital one of the dead is a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive device as he was trying to enter the

building more details now from marty's correspondent paula sli or joins us live paula what is happening what is the latest out of the turkish capital. well the latest information we have comes from turkish police who say that three people have been killed today including the suicide bomber a security guard as well as a turkish citizen who was a member of the staff at the american embassy now according to eyewitnesses there was this massive bang and there are also plumes of smoke that have been erupting outside of the american embassy initial reports do say that the blast occurred near the gates of the visa section of the embassy now we understand that all american embassy staff have been taken to safe rooms inside the embassy there are dozens of ambulances as well as emergency personnel at the scene we know of at least one woman who was taken away and who is in we're being told a critical condition the police have cordoned off the area they keeping journalists away from the scene this blast did happen in

a part of ankara where there are several other embassies including that of germany as well as all fronts now we are also being told that the explosion caused no damage inside the embassy itself but it did cause extensive damage to the outside wall there are no reports at this stage of any group saying that it is behind this attack and it's not yet clear who indeed did carry out this attack and what their motivation was but i want to mention that there are a number of illegal groups ranging from kurdish separatists to lift just to islamic militants who have launched attacks in recent years in turkey so you really have a wide range of options in terms of who could have carried this out there has been no official statement yet from the turkish authorities although perhaps it's worth mentioning that prior to this explosion the son in law of the sama bin ladin was arrested in the turkish capital of ankara. paula it's becoming quite a common thing these attacks on u.s. embassies in the region take us through some of the other recent attacks that we've

heard and any possibility as to why it's continuing. well let's begin in turkey there are lots. people inside turkey who are critical of the u.s. policy in the region and it's not unusual to see protests accusing washington of war mongering and also of seeking to intervene in syria and very often these protests in the past have taken place in front of the american embassy in ankara and there you do see a heavy riot presence dispersing any kind of popular protest and that is why questions are already being asked now how it was possible that if indeed it was a suicide bomber that into the visa section and blew himself out how this person was able to get their clothes into the embassy you also have in addition to this violence from syria that continuously spalls across the border and in the past artillery from syria has killed turkish civilians what that means is that you have a whole host of groups who could be implicated or who could have carried out this

attack back in september there was that new torrijos mission in benghazi in libya where we had four american staff members killed including the american ambassador and then just a few days ago you had britain's foreign office warning of a potential threat against the british embassy in tripoli so what we are witnessing is a chain of events targeting western embassies not least of all the united states that seems to be picking up momentum and it is a reflection of the growing anger against washington and other western countries at a particularly unstable time in the region are jews paula for reporting live for us on this breaking news coming out of the turkish capital we of course will continue to follow the story paula thanks for that. well talk more about these events in ankara we're now joined live by mark allman professor of international relations for bill kent university in turkey professor aman to your knowledge have there been

any threats made against the embassy recently was it expected was there any kind of heightened alert surrounding the diplomatic building i don't know of any specific. spreads but of course security is routinely very heavy around diplomatic buildings in ankara and indeed there is routine security even in shopping malls that are bomb detectors as well as you go into them so turkey has experienced over the years various forms of terrorist attack and also calls the u.s. embassy is heavily fortified against it so it's it is a very cute mystery as to how somebody could actually enter into any part of it into the building itself is a very unusual event. turkey has been very active geopolitically with the arab spring civil war in syria it's still too early of course to tell but what groups might have been behind this. well there are several others as we've heard already the government has been pursuing right wing nationalist groups that were hostile to it but it may have its security made up or taken its eye off the ball virus radical

islamic groups who have been passing through turkey to enter syria i think it's really common for people to stumble instance to see people coming from north africa who are parents jihadi types and they then moved down to antioch on the border of syria across so there was a danger as we saw in libya that people took the west supported as opponents of the dictator there against can however decide that they can open fire on the western sponsors or at least one western simplices as happened in the american consulate in benghazi in september it is not impossible that such groups have targeted the us embassy in ankara there are also of course other groups who may be hostile to the united states because of its sympathy for these groups certainly in public opinion there's a big divide and i would say who've been involved majority of turks are rather unhappy about acting as a kind of hinterland for began to sound forces and there are some areas of turkey where you have had popular protests against the deployment of patriot missiles from

stage against the hater troops coming in to provide missile defense and on turkish territory so it is a polarizing issue. what could we see in terms of any kind of response the fact that turkey is a nato member. well of course it would depend i suppose if for the sake of argument the perpetrator could be linked to a state shall we say iran or syria itself then it is possible that it could be argued that it was a state sponsors attack an invasion of turkish territory turkey is a nato member its allies should in some sense come to say i suspect the most likely response is obviously going to be an intensified security sweep in interest. of how this happened who may have assisted the suicide bomber it's unlikely that it was of so locals. but of course it could contribute to the international tensions but it could of course turn out to be somebody who has a grievance against united states more from an angle that we're not looking at from some other subsection of the population or from some of the twenty two of us on the

attack on the u.s. embassy in benghazi libya significant threats to western embassies across the country now an attack on america's diplomatic mission in turkey do you see a pattern here. i think it's possible to say part and certainly it seems to me that one plausible explanation is that there are these radical groups who have sometimes common enemies with the west but also don't like the west in a sense if we go back thirty years to afghanistan we had groups who are hostile to solving communism but they also dislike western materialism as they call it now we have groups who are hostile to say the regime in damascus or to cut off his regime in libya and they were willing to take weapons and money from western sponsors but they don't actually have any love for the west and maybe they feel that the west hasn't done enough for them we often hear this from the rebel groups in syria complaining that they're not getting enough assistance from the west via turkey as the main conduit for more so that's what is a possible explanation though at the moment we call because of the magazine is

there proof politically very painful for the obama administration and now another attack so soon what are the political implications there. well it i you know way that it was surprising that when girls issue did not play as big into the election campaign as one might expected before mr obama was reelected now he does face the problems he has been reelected but he was reelected if you are domestic reasons to some extent saying he was shutting down america's involvement in the outside world. but now of course he is likely to find himself been drawn in directly at any rate into issues to do with security in turkey into issues across the whole of africa the americans maybe let you read french. british play a lead role with north africa but of course american intelligence assets american military advice on how to what is going to and the risk must be large american institutions and diplomatic buildings on could be talking to dos with mark almond professor of international relations at bill kant university in turkey thank

you for your analysis thank you. in other news the first man convicted over america's torture program is now on call waiting to start a thirty month prison sentence but decorative cia veteran john kiriakou played no part in the interrogations he was instead convicted over the leaks after blowing washington's than secret program wide open speaking to r.t. exclusively he told us of just what it is he's being punished for. first of all my case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but

once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just a part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few

weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. now john kiriakou was also against an abbey barnes breaking the sat where he told of the different torture techniques techniques used by the cia the cia also mourn his case the implications in the in-depth interview coming up at six thirty g.m.t. . do you think that the real people who oversaw codified torture john you alberto gonzales and donald rumsfeld shouldn't they be the ones sitting in prison john think they should be the ones in there are others even if you just put aside the people who actually did the day to day torture what about the people who conceived of the policy and who implemented the policy or the attorneys that papered over it with with crazed legal analysis or the man who who destroyed evidence of the torture in the tapes.

france's president francois hollande is planning a trip to mali to survey what's being hailed as a successful military intervention against islamist the french acknowledged however that the operation is now entering a tricky phase which is likely to involve guerrilla tactics from extremists now observers say the three week long fighting has spread more havoc across the country with civilians paying a bloody price for the conflict we've got the story of one of the victims brought to us exclusively by local journalists gonzalo watch at a grocer that out of one of us has but the war became a real nightmare for the people of this small city in the segura region it was one of the first places bombed by french warplanes before more jihadists arrived sweeping south towards the capital by marco the french intervention left a pile of debris and ashes that's just the visible traces of the war they left it civilians who were left with the scars that will last a lifetime one family paid

a deep price for this conflict against the islamist terrorists one of the family sons was killed by a jihadist soldier inside his own home. one brother was attacked by a group of militants the ridge children among them he started running and got back into our house but they followed him one of the children fired at him but missed and then another insurgent shot him inside the house my brother fell and was riddled with bullets we laid his body in the house we couldn't bury him because we were afraid to go outside. this is just one example of the terror that the conflict is putting mali and civilians through plaguing the weakest the most no one was surprised when india bali once jihadist troops arrived it was discovered that the majority of the military were heavily armed child soldiers. yes france prepares to hand over the operation in mali to local troops which are increasingly being accused of atrocities on r.t.

dot com we've got exclusive footage of the edge of the showing evidence of war crimes by troops there we also have more stories from people on the ground about how they are living through the western led battle against islamists. and coming your way later this hour we're serious key opposition groups slams israel over an air strike on syrian territory amid fears the reported bombing could spark a sharp rise in anti israeli sentiment among islamic groups in the region. a rocket with communications equipped onboard has strayed off course and plunged into the pacific ocean soon after takeoff the company responsible for the launch has said it will look into why it happened here's artes you go with the details the zenith rocket with the u.s. communications satellite on board blasted off from the odyssey floating platform to went off course almost immediately and its engines were switched off. into the pacific somewhere along the equator less than

a minute after takeoff now on the equator the earth's rotation speed provides an additional booster rocket so they could carry more weight when it comes to launching from floating platforms besides looking or some there are advantages and disadvantages like there's a minimal risk of rockets falling down on inhabited areas but waves could be a problem in fact there's speculation that that could have been the case the start is a collaboration between russia in their gear and to us boring companies they've been working together since one thousand nine hundred five thirty four successful launches well this was supposed to be the first launch in two thousand and thirteen . a grilling in the u.s. senate we gave the ruling eight hour confirmations of the u.s. defense secretary nominee as he appears ready to give as much as it takes to get the job.

well. done technology innovation all the limbs developments from around russia we've got the huge earth covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know what i'm charging welcome to the big picture. if you.

live from moscow syria is a key opposition group has joined the chorus of outrage over what the regime says was an israeli bombing near damascus the national coalition slammed the airstrike on a military research center inside syria as an attack on the country's sovereignty while the government has pledged to retaliate some mideast experts however take the rebels condemnation of the israeli attack with caution because the reported bombing of the site actually plays into their hands. well the main thing right now is to remember that this comes on the heels of systematic targeting of syrian arab aces by the syrian free army and the syrian opposition also i'd like to remind you that

the syrian opposition has already thought of the radar station on the edges of the golan heights last year so this comes as a continuation of the effort to. royd the syrian army by the opposition and now by the masters themselves by the israelis so what we are witnessing now is a reflection of the political impasse that the syrian opposition as suffering from being unable to achieve anything significant on the ground they have resorted to help from the zionists directly i don't think that the israelis have a policy of making public comments of strikes be it sussan nations or strikes that they launch outside the boundaries of international law iran has threatened israel with consequences following the airstrike iranian academic and political

analyst mohammad marandi says israel see take this warning seriously but it's important is that the united states knew about their strike before hand they did nothing about it the european union as usual so is silent about it there is no condemnation for killing syrians two for bombing the country even of course iran will defend syrian sovereignty the iranians have many means to hurt the israelis to and to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support countries or bodies that could make life for israelis more difficult. there's more news for you online including on guard that says north korea allegedly opposes martial law urging its army to prepare for war it had to argue dot com to see if the green peninsula is on the brink of military conflict. and find out all about

a city that exists only for six days a year we've got all about the russian atlantis at our t.v. dot com. apologetic poorly prepared are struggling to defend his views this is how critics and journalists scored barack obama's pick for the next defense secretary after his confirmation the confirmation hearing in the senate chuck hagel did his best to prove the law to the lawmakers i should say that he's on the same page as them during an eight hour grilling or two going to to can listen in on the session. chuck hagel bent backwards to show how mainstream his views are the senators kept accusing him of not being mainstream enough and they kept using the word mainstream over and over again during this hearing chuck hagel has walked back on a number of positions he had taken earlier he kept apologizing again and again and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge washington's core foreign policy beliefs as one of the senators put it it was quite

an exhausting hearing considering the senators were asking almost the same questions and roughly eighty percent of them had to do with chuck hagel previous statements on israel and iran there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point they were confirming him as secretary of defense for israel i couldn't count how many times he said all options are on the table with regards to iran again and again saying a strike on iran is an option an option that he had previously called irresponsible by the way here's what chuck hagel kept repeating throughout the hearing get the united nations behind you get the international sanctions behind you keep military options on the table if the military option is the only option it's the only option one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in a private conversation senator hagel recently told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously chuck hagel voted against sanctions but today's chuck hagel as we found out during this hearing is for sanctions to those who believe mr

haye go was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he had previously claimed he was he offered a correction a very vague one he tried to blur his response as much as he could here's what he said i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engaging in gauge mint is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagement is not sure under so no direct negotiations with iran here's another example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of prevents this. statements at one time he said and this has become a famous quote the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of is world and of quote here's chuck hagel during this confirmation hearing he noted that i. that i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret i mean do your use of intimidation. i

should have used influence. i think would have been more appropriate i should not have said dumb or stupid. because i understand appreciate there are different views in these things it was like torture watching the hearing because it seemed as if the senators were not there to question chuck hagel but they were there to break him because they kept going back to his previous statements and pushing and pushing until he said what they wanted to hear and he did it so whoever thought chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy after this hearing would seriously doubt that. the founder of the wide awake news dot com website charlie mcgrath thinks militarism is deep rooted in the us foreign policy and it's not going away anytime soon. elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope to mizzen was there with shutting down gitmo and

ending these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bakers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out. the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded out of the people the fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spending us into having. now we're always interested to know your view on the issues we're covering here and today at

r.t. dot com we're asking why you think hegel stance on iran has become more hawkish so to say let's take a look at some of the things that people are sending in to us one of them is is a genuine change in position three percent of you think he's really changed his views twenty one percent say it's a ploy to in fact counter that so-called anti israeli steps that guy now reporter in washington was talking about a third of you say it doesn't matter he actually won't have any influence on what happens in terms of iran policy that he was ever in the position it will be the white house his policies and most of you forty five percent claims the ultimate reason is that it proves his own claim that no one his own previous claim we should say that no one can stand up to the jewish lobby will send us a lie we want to know what you think why has chuck hagel become more hawkish especially in terms of iran we're going to take a break here on r.t.

i'll be back at the top of the hour with more news next up it's one of our exclusive special reports.

here the reindeer is everything for the herders. and when it suffers. people do their best to help. but the distances are. on the roads are. unpredictable. need be and try to. download the official up location.